Meet the man behind the Atkinson's Star Wars exhibition

The man behind the Star Wars exhibition coming to the Atkinson has promised that visitors will get to see some the rarest and most valuable memorabilia from around the world.

Matt Fox, whose collection is being displayed at the Lord Street art centre from November to March 2017, has been collecting Star Wars memorabilia since seeing the first film aged five and is promising a unique attraction for fans of the saga.

The vintage memorabilia is exclusively from the original Star Wars trilogy, spanning 1977-1983, and comes from countries as far as Japan and Brazil.

Matt, 44, has previously displayed the collection at the Beaney Museum in Canterbury, near to where he lives with wife Jo and daughter Gemma. Unsurprisingly, eight-year-old Gemma has already developed a love of Star Wars as well.

Two-and-a-half thousand people attended the opening weekend of the exhibition in Canterbury, and Matt is promising something for Southport residents to be excited about too.

“It's going to be a fantastic collection of vintage toys, posters and other memorabilia,” Matt said. “It's all going to be vintage and it's 500 of the highest quality memorabilia you'll see.”

In terms of the posters, one highlight will be a rarely seen artwork created for the original Star Wars movie, now known as Episode IV: A New Hope, by renowned designer Tim Beauvais.

The poster was commissioned by the film company and hand painted by Beauvais, only for an alternative poster by Tom Chantrell to be selected and become the iconic image which is still recognised around the world today.

“The unused poster is one of the great pieces of poster art and it's never really been seen before,” Matt said. “Visitors are also going to see a full collection of the original British cinema posters.”

“In terms of rarity and value, a lot of the memorabilia here is rarer and more valuable than most.”

The alternative Star Wars poster, by Tom Beauvais (Image: Matt Fox)

Matt works at Spacefund, an educational organisation he and Jo set up which teaches children all about space. Spacefund was also involved heavily involved in work using British astronaut Tim Peake's journey to space to inspire and interest primary school children in the the significance of space exploration.

“I've always been a space geek,” he explained. “I love the real side of what's happening in space as well the fictional stuff.”

Matt estimates that the collection is worth at least £100,000, though acknowledges that much of that has been financed through selling other merchandise, largely through eBay and dedicated Facebook groups which have enabled collectors from all around the world to be able to buy and sell much more easily.

“'I'm not wasting money, I'm investing it' – that's the line I use, but it can be a bit of a thorny issue,” he laughs.

Around 500 pieces of memorabilia will be on show (Image: Matt Fox)

The exhibition will run until 2017 (Image: Matt Fox)

“Since the Force Awakens, the prices have really risen. If you bought any figures a year or two ago, you've done really well.”

The secret to Star Wars' enduring popularity, Matt Fox argues, is the richness and detail of the worlds created by the filmmakers.

“It's partly the design work,” he says. “The design people were incredible. When you watch the films, you could easily imagine things happening off screen. There's so much depth and realism there.”

“There's so much detail there that you can easily imagine what would be going on if the camera just panned slightly to the left or the right. I think it's resonated because of that”

The exhibition will run at the Atkinson, Lord Street, from Saturday, November 19 to Saturday, 5 March. Prices are £3 for adults, £2 for children and £8 for a family of four.